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Let’s face it: When you’re a grown-up, getting real mail can be terrible. (Look, another bill. Great, a reminder to get my teeth cleaned.) Occasionally you receive a nice letter-pressed wedding invitation or glossy gossip magazine. But when you were a kid? Getting mail was awesome. (Invitations to classmates’ parties! Birthday cards with a $5 bill tucked inside!) For many children, holiday catalogs provided endless hours of entertainment. As an elementary school-aged girl in the 1990s though, nothing beat the […]

Continue Reading about Learning American History from American Girls Published on:
May 27, 2014

Over the past two years, the International Center for the History of Electronic Games (ICHEG) has been working to preserve pinball’s past by expanding its collection to more than 50 historic pinball machines—adding early “pin games” (flipperless predecessors to pinball machines) and electromechanical and “solid state” (electronic) pinball machines to the museum’s unparalleled collection of playthings.This summer (from May 24 to September 7), The Strong is showcasing some of these machines and related materials in Pinball Playfields, a temporary exhibit […]

Continue Reading about Pinball Lives at The Strong Published on:
May 23, 2014

Parody, a calculated form of play, has been around for a long time. Follow the word to its Greek roots and you dig up the meaning “against song.”

Continue Reading about The Funny Thing about the Funny Thing Published on:
May 21, 2014

When I give guests a tour through The Strong, I always plan to spend a few extra minutes in the museum’s Dancing Wings Butterfly Garden where approximately 800 butterflies fly around. I’ve noticed that if you move quickly through the space you miss many butterflies that are resting or feeding. But when you stay still, your perception sharpens and you notice more butterflies and moths perched on leaves, on branches, or on fruit. In general, the principle holds true that […]

Continue Reading about A Case for Slow Play in Video Games Published on:
May 13, 2014

On February 11, 2014, the staff at The Strong and the American public learned of the passing of Shirley Temple Black, actor, politician, diplomat, and former U.S. ambassador. Most Americans, however, know Temple as the most popular child star in Hollywood history.
Temple began acting in short films at the age of three. During the worst years of the Great Depression, her dancing and singing, her dimples and smile, and her cuteness and charisma made her the number-one box office draw […]

Continue Reading about Shirley Temple Published on:
May 8, 2014

Storytellers help listeners to connect to experiences. Current storytelling projects such as The Moth, Story Corps, and Human Library showcase human experience through various media platforms. Video games today demonstrate how storytelling continues to evolve. The format allows players to interpret the game and to make in-game decisions that affect the fate of the characters and the plot of the story. The video game industry has recently provided players with two games, The Novelist and Gone Home, that present an opportunity […]

Continue Reading about Video Games Showcase the Human Experience Published on:
April 30, 2014

Rabid fan that I am, and with spring training just finished, I knew baseball had to be my blog topic so I could talk about the coming season, Derek Jeter’s recent retirement announcement, and the power of his presence and his play. Yankee Captain since 2003, Jeter has been the face of his team for more than a decade. Not only has he been a key part of recent Yankee successes, he has also helped hold the game together during […]

Continue Reading about Derek Jeter: The “Star Power” of Play Published on:
April 29, 2014

ICHEG has acquired a massive collection of materials chronicling the history of Atari’s pioneering video arcade and pinball machine divisions from 1972 to 1999. The collection represents the largest and most comprehensive assemblage of archival records and other documentary items related to Atari’s coin-operated games anywhere in the world.
I first encountered Atari’s video arcade games at a local arcade where my brother and I spent many hours playing classic vector graphic space shooters like Asteroids (1979) and Star Wars (1983). […]

Continue Reading about ICHEG Preserves Atari Coin-Op Divisions Collection Published on:
April 22, 2014

Some of my fondest childhood memories date back to the 1970s and 80s when my grandparents would take my sister and me to Friday night bingo at the local fire hall. The moment we stepped into the building, we were enveloped by the sights, sounds, and aromas of bingo. Hot dogs, popcorn, and refreshments were served and lines formed to purchase the requisite bingo cards. Often we sat with my grandparents’ “bingo buddies” at long tables lined with metal folding […]

Continue Reading about Bingo! Published on:
April 21, 2014